Coastal Serub. Shi 
rain, or a dry station with abundant precipitation. In places, it is hardly pos- 
sible to draw the line between forest and scrub, for forest exposed to frequent 
„ violent wind becomes scrub. On the other hand, tall scrub may be virtually forest. 
Scrub of a definite character containing species rare or wanting elsewhere 
is found chiefly in the Stewart and Fiord districts, where it often forms a 
narrow girdle along the shore in front of the rain-forest. 
a. Mutton-bird‘) (7 ree-composite) scrub. 
This consists of the two sub-associations, Senecio- and Ölearia-scrub. The 
following are the principal constituents: Phormium Cookianum, Leptospermum 
scoparium, Metrosideros lucida, Dracophyllum longifolium, Veronica salicifolia, 
V. amabilıs var. blanda, V. EIapiien, Olearıa operina, O. are O. Colensoi 
and Senecio rotundifolius. 
en 
. Senecio rotundifolius sub-association. 
This ae a girdle varying in width according to the wind-velocity round 
the inlets and sheltered parts of the Stewart Island coast and in portions of 
the Fiord district, but with a somewhat different composition. It extends from 
‘ the margin of the rain-forest almost to high-water «mark. The soil is often 
‚shallow peat overlying soft granite, but when the scrub faces a sandy or gra- 
velly shore and there is no cliff adjacent, the soil is deeper and wetter... Senecio 
rotundifolius is dominant. It is about 3 m high and frequently prostrate in part 
‚ (Fig. 15). The numerous, stout, rigid, naked branches covered with smooth. 
brownish bark spread widely and form, through their final branching, a rounded 
head of stiff branchlets covered with the large round leathery leaves, bright 
shining green above but beneath clad with buff tomentum. The intermingled 
crowns make a flat roof which is penetrated, here and there, by the yellowish 
fastigiate heads of the Dracophyllum, its long, needle-like leaves arranged 
Prayer: a a ie 2 long arms ‚above &, are'i irre 
‚trees of Metrosideros lucida. , 
Where the wind strikes with greater violence, Dei coparıun 
ee and increases in amount with increase of w vin coming. 
